Compassionate Noticing Mindfulness Practice

“[With Compassionate Noticing]
I have a chance to go from overwhelm to almost instantly relaxed.

“I’m also grateful to be using it regularly now with my wife,
to deepen our relationship. It’s a simple, effective well-being practice,
we look forward to tapping into it for the rest of our lives!“
— Chris V.S., California, USA

“It’s so powerful for me to do [Compassionate Noticing]. I’m usually on such alert mode,
and with this I relax in a way that’s almost impossible for me to do on my own.

I have such a feeling of wellness afterwards, like a glow. This feels amazing, it works!

Thank you SO much, this is so healing for me.”
— Christina C., Portland, OR, USA

“I have a freedom I never knew before in noticing thoughts coming up,
and I more often have the choice of what my reaction is, instead of being swept away
down the river of sadness/anger/frustration/overwhelm.
Now I know that experiencing those things is okay too, and that I will recover and that I’ll be okay. That may be the biggest thing I’ve learned: that
I’m loved and supported, and that while a storm of emotion may sometimes arise,
it will also pass, and I am — and will be — okay.”

— K. H., Portland, OR, USA

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Compassionate Noticing Mindfulness Practice (CN) offers a pathway to becoming fully at home and consistently available to ourselves, other people, and All of Life from moment to moment … regardless of the circumstances.

CN is also a profoundly effective way to build our skill and capacity to make effective observations, that are the foundation of creating positive connections with others even when we’re having very different experiences, and/or don’t agree about what’s happening.

When we Witness our experience while simultaneously allowing ourselves to HAVE our experience, just as it is — without adding any meaning or interpretation, and without any agenda or intent to change anything during our practice — we significantly expand our capacity for presence and choice, especially in those moments when we typically fall into automatic, unconscious, avoidant, or other disconnected ways of being that don’t reflect who we really are or the values that we are committed to embodying.

While this practice is focused on being with our experience just-as-it-is, paradoxically, Compassionate Noticing Mindfulness Practice often diminishes and even dissolves our most challenging pain (both physical and emotional).

We also find that Compassionate Noticing Mindfulness Practice:

Deepens our everyday self-awareness, self-understanding, and self-compassion

Builds our experience of shared humanity, acceptance, belonging, and being okay just as we are (earned secure attachment)

Expands our capacity for presence, calm, and peace, regardless of circumstances (earned secure attachment)

Dramatically increases our capacity to manage upsets in ways that embody and enact our values

Helps dissolve enmeshment and codependence, and build healthy boundaries by giving us a space where we are supported to hear what others are experiencing without “needing” to do anything about it* (In fact, we’re specifically asked NOT to “do anything” about it. As a recovering helpaholic, this was an life-changing experience, revelation, and liberation for me, personally.)

Diminishes our tendency to automatically blame either others or ourselves for what arises in us

Remarkably enhances our ability to Be With others just as they are, without feeling compelled to try to fix or change them

Creates a comfortable, easy pathway to greater presence, authenticity, connection, and genuine intimacy

Turns our insula back on, which allows us to feel our bodies and our emotions again — which reawakens our empathic capacity and our felt sense of connection to ourselves and others. (The insula is the brain structure that protects us by turning off our ability to feel our body sensations/emotions that we don’t have the capacity to process, or that we’re shamed for having.)

Helps us tell the difference between our actual felt experience and the meaning we add to that (the stories we tell ourselves; our interpretations, opinions, evaluations, judgments; etc.)

When used to express to others what we’re experiencing, CN acknowledges that the other person might be having a different experience, and allows room for everyone’s unique experience. This creates a deeply respectful, effortless pathway to experiencing greater authenticity, connection, and intimacy with others

* Provides a potent space to practice simply “letting” others have their own experience, without “having” to fix, comfort, or rescue

Compassionate Noticing was originally developed by Eric Sucher of Portland, OR.

Participants consistently say
Compassionate Noticing Mindfulness Practice
is among the most transformational experiences of their lives.

What has Compassionate Noticing Mindfulness Practice (CN) done for me?

When I started practicing CN in 2009, I’d been devoted to my personal development for 35 years, including about 10 years of NVC. CN very quickly left me much more able to stay present and at choice — able to live my values — in moments when before, I could only react.

Most people are astonished by the simplicity, ease, and impact this practice has … even when practiced by phone.

Come try it out, and see for yourself.

The basic Compassionate Noticing Mindfulness Practice (CN) is to simply sit, lie, or stand (eyes open or closed) and just notice our own:

body sensations
feelings
thoughts
impulses

… and then, from time to time, report out loud what we’re noticing.

While we’re practicing, we don’t add interpretations or opinions; we don’t try to make sense or figure anything out. (Which is why, in this practice, we don’t identify life-needs.) And we don’t try to get away from whatever we’re experiencing, either. We just sit with what’s arising in us, and we notice that with warmth and tenderness.

Turns out, if you’d like to reduce your reactivity and have more choice over what you say and do, regardless of the circumstances, CN is startlingly effective. Usually after only a handful of sessions.

Compassionate Noticing Mindfulness Practice can be practiced in small groups (up to 10-12), in dyads, and just with ourselves, although its transformative power is greatest when practiced in resonant, compassionate groups, especially for those of us who are experiencing numbness, self-criticism, anxiety, shame, “helpaholism” (codependence, enmeshment, poor boundaries, people-pleasing, caretaking), reactivity, or relationship challenges.

The skills and capacities that Compassionate Noticing almost effortlessly cultivates in us
provide the essential foundation for harmonious, healthy, deeply satisfying relationships
— with ourselves as well as at home, in community, at school, and at work.

Sweetest of all, CN makes it possible to both embrace and bridge
what can sometimes be an enormous gulf of differences between us … gifting us with
the most profound attunement and intimacy imaginable.

Click here to request your FREE GUIDE,
including Compassionate Noticing Mindfulness Practice
Elements and Reporting Guidelines, and
a full sample CN Practice meditation recording (with timestamps).